Contracting

actual savings
beyond
payback
payback
receivables
for former
Meeting the European energy investments and
climate policy objectives will require
the mobilisation of substantial energy
cost reductions
spread of
achievable through
efficiency and
savings
renewable energy
energy savings investments at the local level. Given
both the substantial effort necessary
to finance the energy transition and
restricted municipal budgets, it is clear
that these objectives cannot be met
through traditional public financing
such as grants or direct investment,
but by finding a new approach to
financing solutions.
sweet fruits
One innovative financing scheme has
proved to be particularly relevant in
enabling investments in bulk energy of fruits saving
projects for municipalities and public
organisations: Setting up an internal
energy contracting scheme that
includes a revolving fund. low-hanging However, fruits
due to its unconventional approach in
terms of public funding accounting,
organisational barriers or simply a lack
of information, so far few European
municipalities have adopted the
concept.
In the light of this situation, the
European Commission decided to
revolving fund
client
budget
avoided budget increase
free
capital
fund the project INFINITE Solutions
(INnovative FINancIng for Local
SusTainable Energy Solutions) within
the scope of its “Intelligent Energy–
Europe” new programme. expenses INFINITE for aims
investments core tasks
to spread knowledge about Internal
Contracting as a financing tool for
energy saving measures among
European municipalities.
INFINITE Solutions has been
coordinated by Energy Cities. Acting as
an advising tutor, the city of Stuttgart
has contributed its experience of
more than two decades in managing/
implementing an Internal Contracting
scheme. The municipalities of
Almada (Portugal), Águeda (Portugal),
Koprivnica (Croatia), and Udine (Italy)
have taken part as learning authorities
with the objective of setting up their
own Internal Contracting scheme.
This guidebook is built upon
a comprehensive analysis of
Stuttgart’s Internal Contracting
scheme and a detailed questioning
of it by the learning authorities
within the INFINITE Solutions
project. It is intended to offer
guidelines to municipalities as well
as universities, hospitals or other
institutions interested in applying
Internal Contracting to improve their
energy consumption and efficiency
performance.
The approach of this guidebook is
developed as follows:
– The concept of contracting –
especially Internal Contracting –
will be introduced.
– Universal guidance will be offered
on how to implement an Internal
Contracting scheme and keep it
working over the long term.
– The Internal Contracting scheme
will be presented in practice.
Several cities will describe their
individual approaches to Internal
Contracting and the various ways
they have been able to adapt the
scheme.
The mindmap in figure 1 shows
the numerous topics that must be
considered when learning about
Internal Contracting. All these topics
are covered within this guidebook.
GERM
Stuttgart
Udine
ITALY
Roma
Monitoring and annual report
Council decision Make it sustainable
Pipeline of projects
Annual rates
Make it revolving
Agreements
CO 2 -credits
CO 2 -penalty
Energy savings
EU / National funding
Internal
External
Profit immediately from savings
Capacity building
Internal Contracting
Scheme
Source of
the fund
Communication
Internal
Contracting
Target group
Criteria
Organisational
aspects
City council
City department services
Municipally-owned companies
Energy savings
Return on Investment
Complexity of measures
Overcoming structural barriers
Appointing management unit
Defining investment strategies
Water
Transport
Energy
Housing
Public lighting
Flexibility in investments
Why?
More profitable than External Contracting
Saving energy & energy costs
Figure 1: Mindmap showing all the topics relevant to Internal Contracting
Infinite Solutions Guidebook – Internal Contracting
koprivnica
Zagreb
Águeda